Daniel Bwala, a special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and policy, has boasted that the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, will soon defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.
Bwala made the statement during an interview on TVC on Wednesday, asserting that Obi’s departure from the LP is imminent.
“Do you know we are emptying the Labour Party? Not because we are asking them to come. Valentine Ozigbo has joined us, Balami has joined us, even Peter Obi will join us,” Bwala said.
He further claimed that Ozigbo’s move to the APC is a strong indicator that Obi will follow suit.
“For Valentine Ozigbo to come to our party—Valentine Ozigbo is actually the custodian of Peter Obi—then I know for a fact that Peter Obi will join us,” he added.
Bwala also downplayed the defection of former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, from the APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), describing it as “insignificant.”
He accused the SDP of using strategic weekly announcements of defections to dominate media headlines.
“You see, after one or two weeks of this mini-dramatic activity—because the way they scheme these things is that every week, you will hear a breaking news story that ‘a gladiator has joined SDP’—so they will dominate the media space,” Bwala said.
“By the time the two weeks is over and they are able to enjoy this momentary coverage, when they sit down, they’ll start fighting over who will be president or vice-president,” he added.
Bwala suggested that El-Rufai avoided joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because he would not have control over decision-making there.
“The reason El-Rufai did not go to the PDP is because he can’t dictate things there, but he told the world that the chairman of SDP is his friend. So they went there because they want to dictate,” he said.
El-Rufai had announced his departure from the APC on Monday, citing “conflicting values” with the ruling party.